I believe that Sunday was Odessa's first true trail ride with creeks and logs and stuff to negotiate and she was great.  I think it helped that she was madly in lust for Will, the gelding TJ was on.  She had a pitiful wanting look on her eye the whole time and would nicker softly if he got too far away from her and she squatted and peed about 5 times.  She was pitiful.

Odessa is home from 45d at an Eventing barn where she was away from Darwin and getting some riding experience.  She will continue her training at Woodsmith Farm with a lot of ground work in patience, standing and bending. 

Today there was finally enough daylight and good weather to enjoy a nice afternoon with the horses.

With a lot of riding and driving just around the corner, I wanted to get the arena ready to go for the season.  There were a couple of thin spots so I left work about 3:30 to direct the Mercer Stone drivers on where to dump a couple of loads of Class I.

Rachel, Erin D., and I met up with another group from the Knoxville area for a trail ride at East Fork Stables in Jamestown, TN.  Rachel brought Salli and Bella for us and Erin D. rode her young horse Taos.

"Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?
Expediency asks the question - is it politic?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
But conscience asks the question - is it right?"

"And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right."

After going through the latest ice storm in Kentucky and because I work as an IT professional and see how users react to technology, I know how true this video is.  We all take things for granted and it was amazing to see how many people during the ice storm did not understand how the appliances and power worked in their homes.  I admit to being one of the ignorant, but hopefully I have picked up enough information to not be left out in the cold should something like this happen again.